The Playbook: Here’s how to grow your traffic using your content

Originally shared with our clients on September 19th 2023. Subscribe here

This one is all about increasing traffic to your website and up your content marketing game, with a special focus on SaaS companies.

 

How to Increase Traffic to your SaaS Website

The first thing you should decide on is what numbers you should aim for. Are you certain your numbers are lower than the rest of your industry?

DataBox, a software company, analyzed the traffic of around 500 SaaS businesses, and here’s the global industry average they determined:

Averages were measured in May 2023

• Impressions: 131,710/ month

• CTR: 1.59%

• Clicks: 2,300/month

Both Databox and Growth Spirit, a marketing platform focused on SaaS companies, share advice on organic growth, here a summary:

1. All traffic fluctuates based on seasons, closely monitor your traffic to answer the following:

   •  What’s your normal traffic cycle?

   • Do you see spikes after specific content updates, social media activity, or business events?

2. Benchmark with competitors, so you can identify strengths that can be expanded and weaknesses that need to be addressed.

3. Add a large glossary One misconception is that “what is ____?” type searches don’t yield ROI. But if your audience is technical, or looking for technical answers related to what your product does, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

4. Create a content calendar filled with insightful blog posts; reports; your take on the industry…etc. (We can help )

5. Leverage local communities and events, regardless of your global status

6. Audit your decaying content every six months.

7. Enhance internal linking. Simply link to other pages, free resources, or demo requests whenever possible.

 

How the biggest apps got their 1st 1,000 subscribers

This piece caught my eye on Substack, it’s by Lenny Rachitesky, who while hasn’t explained who he is has 508,000 subscribers and excellent marketing insights, I recommend checking his work.

 

There are mainly seven reliable ways to find your first 1,000 users:

1. Leverage your network: The easiest and fastest way to find your early users, and a large driver of early growth for about 20% of startups, is to reach out to your friends and former colleagues.

2. Expand to targeting your ideal market

3. Go where your target audience hangs out (online or offline)

4. Enlist influencers (paid or organically)

5. Get press

6. Create viral content. This one is difficult to achieve but potentially very high-ROI early growth strategy is to create content that goes viral.

7. Get physical placement such as sponsorship of industry events, an intern to distribute flyers, stickers, or OOH signs

 

Your content marketing may be missing the mark and how to fix it 

“We tried content marketing, but….” This one is a favorite of mine! Many fall into this trap you invest time and effort in content that doesn’t get much traction.

Content marketing isn’t something you do a couple of times and get results (for most at least), it’s something that you keep building on and then overnight it generates incredible ROI .

 

Now to HubSpot’s, marketing software provider, advice on the matter:

1. There has to be a clear owner of your content marketing efforts. A person, a team, or an outsourced entity (ehm, plugging our services here again). You can’t ask someone who already has a full-time job to also produce and implement a full content marketing strategy.

2. Don’t play it safe and don’t be salesy. Content marketing is about educating your customers and building trust. This also means you need to address thorny subjects and offer honesty instead of what gets you the sale.

3. You must have a specific goal, a plan, and a structure.

4. Assign someone who knows what to do and how to do it. There’s a lot of content out there, it takes experts to give you return on investment.

5. More traffic doesn’t always mean more sales. Marketers love to brag about reach, and what’s more encouraging than thousands of site visitors

Imagine this:

• Article A gets 10,000 views each month and brings in 10 customers.

• Article B gets 2,000 views each month and brings in 20 customers.

• Article C gets 500 views per month and brings in 50 customers.

Too often, companies chase Article A, putting their effort into high-trafficked content that doesn’t end up converting visitors into customers.

6. Sales has to be involved when setting your content goals. They know who is looking for your services and who needs what information.